By Daniel J. ChacóN And Sarah Langbein
Rocky Mountain News (Colorado)
Copyright 2006 Denver Publishing Company
Revelations that Denver hasn’t hired a black firefighter in the past six years drew threats of lawsuits and other strong reactions from city leaders Thursday.
Menola Upshaw, president of the local NAACP, said she is considering asking the national civil rights organization to look into the situation. And Fidel “Butch” Montoya, who was the city’s safety manager from 1994 to 2000, said he would be willing to spearhead a lawsuit to force Denver to diversify.
“Unless we put them under the fire, they’re not going to take it very seriously,” Montoya said. “I think if they have a federal court order that says you will do it, then you will do it. No excuses.”
But Safety Manager Al LaCabe, who is black, said that the city has implemented several changes, including removing prior disqualifiers, such as certain juvenile transgressions, and giving a new version of an entrance exam.
“We made sure (the test) was job relevant and tied into the skills necessary to perform in the fire academy,” he said. “We did not change the qualifications and the criteria. We still want, across the board, the best applicants we can find.”
LaCabe said the city also partnered with black firefighters and others to beef up recruitment.
“All of these things are happening to try to deal with the numbers,” LaCabe said.
Denver, which has a black population of about 11 percent, has 903 firefighters. Of those, only 52 are black.
City Councilman Michael Hancock said he knew there was a problem when three fellow blacks told him recently they had passed a test to be firefighters but were passed over for the academy, apparently because others scored better.
Hancock, who has a background in career training, said he wants to develop a comprehensive plan that would help aspiring firefighters prepare for the academy.
“I think diversity is not something that you create a program around,” he said. “It’s something that is a value of yours. That means you work toward it. That means you must bring leadership to the issue, and that’s not occurring right now. And we are all accountable for that.”
Fire Chief Larry Trujillo said he has worked to increase diversity in his department, but that it’s the Civil Service Commission that has the final say over who gets a job.
“We have made every effort to make sure to ensure diversity,” said Chris Olson, who heads the commission board. “This is not something we, the commission, have ignored.”
For every 10 people who apply for a civil service job, Olson said, only one makes it through the process.
“The bottom line is we need more and more (blacks) applying,” he said, adding that “quality of the candidate is still most important.”
Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth, who is black, said she is going to meet with commissioners at their regular meeting next Friday.
“I want to know specifics and what is the short- and long-term plan to turn this around,” she said. “My goal is to not go into another year that has this record because — six years — that is totally unacceptable.”
Hancock echoed that sentiment.
“I’m not saying lower standards or change standards. I think that’s an insult,” he said. “And that’s what these candidates are saying. They’re saying, ‘Think differently about how you staff this fire department.’ ”
Denver Fire Capt. Kevin Duncan, president of the Colorado Black Professional Firefighters, said he’d like the commission to take an even closer look at its testing process.
For example, he said, he’d like to see a change to a section of the test known as “situational judgment.” He said it doesn’t take into account a person’s background or culture. Duncan emphasized that he isn’t asking for the test to be “dumbed down.”
Denver isn’t the only fire agency having problems recruiting blacks. Aurora, for example, has 293 firefighters and only 11 are black. Of the 73 firefighters at North Metro Fire, only one is black.
LaCabe, Denver’s safety manager, said that the city is seeing improvements with the changes that were implemented late last year.
He said that one reason Denver didn’t have any blacks in the academy last year is that the city had only one class and did no new testing.
Everyone “came off the 2004 list, and what we also had in 2005 (were cadets who) came from the Glendale Fire Department” when Glendale contracted with Denver to provide fire protection services, he said.
“We took them as a group, whoever was there,” LaCabe said. “And they had no African-Americans on their fire department.”
Recruiting black firefighters
The city of Denver hasn’t added any black firefighters since 2000. But new recruiting efforts seem to be drawing more black applicants.
Year Total applying Black applicants
2001 1,250 65
2002 1,475 70
2003 1,759 138
2004 1,373 67
2005* 0 0
2006 1,279 189